Why did they kill Ironforge ? :o

Seriously, like wtf ?

Ironforge was THE best capital in Vanilla, where everyone was... It's way more beautiful and mythic than Stormwind, but still, they killed it, with all quests now directing to SW, not even a Reforger and mog in IF, why ?

Players chose Ironforge in Vanilla because it was the most convenient city for several reasons... such as the AH being there prior to 1.09, of course, but also the proximity to Menethil Harbour / Searing Gorge, and the ease of AH->Bank straight-line distance, the large open meeting space and simpler layout of vendors. (There's a reason IF remained popular beyond the addition of global AHs in capitals)

But Blizzard want Stormwind to be the capital of the Alliance because Humans are the primary race, same as Orcs and Orgrimmar for the Horde. Orcs vs. Humans. That's basically it.

Edit: Added some clarification so people don't keep quoting me with "Did you know IF had the AH??" Yes, that's one of the reasons why it was the most convenient. Not the only reason though. IF was still busiest until Blizzard intentionally changed it in Cata.

Last edited by Thaeha; 2014-07-12 at 06:46 PM.
Reason: Edited, so people stop quoting me with the same assumption

Because adding a few NPC's and a couple of portals would cost an entire raid tier.

Nuclear weapons: A firm public commitment to build the £100bn renewal of the Trident weapons system, followed by an equally firm private commitment not to build it. They’re secret submarines, no one will ever know. It’s a win win.

They should give all the capitals the same services that orgrimmar/stormwind.

They did, back at the beginning of Cata. But then patch 4.3 came, and they *intentionally removed* the reforge NPC's from all cities except Org/SW. The "old" reforge NPC's are still there, they just tell you they can't do it anymore and direct you to the ethereals in SW/Org. Great design decision huh?

Agreed, let the players decide their faction's capital simply by numbers in each major city.

They did do this, and then they backpedaled and deliberately took it away in patch 4.3. It took *extra work* to take it away, so I have to say they knew exactly what they were doing. Probably saw fewer people in Org/SW and decided to "fix" it.

Because adding a few NPC's and a couple of portals would cost an entire raid tier.

I'd be willing to give up a raid tier for this. I play on Stormrage-US and it's a nightmare in Stormwind during peak hours. Even with a half-decent computer, I only render people that are directly around me at any given time.